"At first, before I did it, I was terrified. I mean I didn't really I, I love the piece, but I never really - I don't think I really pictured what would be like in front of people. Then when we started into rehearsals, or even just the thought of rehearsals, I was sort of quaking in my boots thinking about it. Then I saw 'Free Solo,' that documentary about the free climber Alex Honnold that won the Academy Award. Amazing, amazing documentary, and I thought to myself, if he can do that without any rope I can do a monologue. And then that was it."

4. Jake Gyllenhaal talking to reporter

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jake Gyllenhaal/Actor, on how he feels as the play ends:

"I'm just grateful to be on the stage. The last line of dialogue I – there's a lot of feeling. If you come see the show, there's a lot of feeling in the last few lines. But you know, I say very clearly, I love you, at the end. You know. And that's how I felt. You know."

DKC/O&M

6. Various still images from "Sea Wall/A Life"

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, 8 August 2019

7. Jake Gyllenhaal talking to reporter

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jake Gyllenhaal/Actor, on how he feels as the play ends:

(Reporter: Does it make you emotional)

"Now. Right now, does it make me emotional?)

(Reporter: No, when you're doing it.. this is an intense role. How does it affect you?)

Jake Gyllenhaal: "Yeah, of course. I mean, if you see the show it's, it's, it's very emotional through all of it. But it changes every night. It's different. Sometimes I'm telling the story, I'm just telling it. Sometimes things happen. Sometimes I hear someone in the audience have an emotional response, if it's laughing or crying, and it makes me feel something. A total stranger, I'll hear them and all of a sudden I'll have this -I'll have a response, it will open my heart or sometimes my friend will be in the audience and I'll know, and I'll do the entire piece to them, you know. Every night is different here."

9. Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal talking to reporters

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Sturridge/Actor, on being nervous before taking the stage:

"I don't know. I feel like weirdly - like before I walk on stage I feel fear. But I feel safest on the stage."

11. Tom Sturridge talking to reporter

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Sturridge/Actor, on not having another actor to play off:

"Well, there is, the audience. That's the difference. Normally when you're on stage you're pretending to be in a room and pretending like you're in Russia in 1920s and you're pretending the audience don't exist. But with this, I'm having a conversation with real people who are different every night. And if I blow a line, then we just change the conversation."